


you are not the pie crust

by doublejoint



Series: peachtober 2020 [20]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:42:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27128740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doublejoint/pseuds/doublejoint
Summary: Here's how it starts.
Relationships: Eustass Kid/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Series: peachtober 2020 [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953295
Comments: 14
Kudos: 30





	you are not the pie crust

**Author's Note:**

> #peachtober day 20: Pie
> 
> i am quite certain that future events will not unfold in exactly this way, but until that's absolutely confirmed i'm going to wait to add the canon divergence tag. 
> 
> brief violent imagery

Here’s how it starts: The two of them on Sabaody at the same time, reaching the front of that auction house at the same time, fighting the same fight (and, okay, they’re not the only ones there, but when Kid looks back at it, what matters is that it’s the two of them). And, okay, that’s not what Law remembers the most, so maybe that’s not really where it starts, but there sure as hell wasn’t anything from before then—

Here’s how it really starts, Kid making an alliance that falls through and almost destroys everything he’d built up, while Law makes an alliance that leads him straight to Kid, more or less--okay, on a winding, halting, road that eventually leads him and Kid to be part of the same alliance. But that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

So here’s how it really starts, Killer who can’t stop fucking laughing, and Kid who’s never minded the sound itself but can hear Killer coming apart from the inside like there’s a blade shredding slowly, cutting just as the wound heals, to scar over and over and over again, Killer who Kid cannot protect, and Kid who’s fucking desperate, And Trafalgar Law, ex-Shichibukai, genius doctor, right in front of him--what the hell’s Kid supposed to do, not ask him to help Killer? The worst that could happen is he says no (and then Kid forces him to do it) or that he really can’t (and no one can, and Killer is stuck with this until they find another way, and Kid’s going to fucking find one; he’ll exhaust every avenue if he has to).

Law fucking does it, though. 

It’s delicate work, but he does it; he figures out how to fix it--though, the rest of it stays; Killer still can’t swim and he still can’t eat a devil fruit, but that’s livable and Killer’s happy and he smiles behind the mask because he fucking wants to, and he doesn’t have to show it to anyone else. So Kid stays, while Law helps the rest of the people in Wano, because even though they’re pirates and pirates don’t do charity--no one should have to live with laughs pulled out of their throat for eternity. (Well, maybe Kaido should.) 

So here’s how it really starts: the two of them in Wano, along with their crews, the alliance bridging them together having pretty much dissolved, the Straw Hats and the Minks off to wherever, Kaido done, and things in a state of tentativity, but a relatively stable one. Killer, sad and laughing, fills Kid’s nightmares, and even waking up and knowing he’s on the other side of the wall does very little to ease Kid’s anxiety. So he stays up late and drinks and stares into space, and meets Law when he gets back. Mostly they don’t talk, just sit there while Law winds down (or sometimes, bone-tired, he falls asleep in a chair).

It starts when Kid finally asks Law, “How’d you get all those marine hearts, anyway?”

“Operating room,” says Law. “They kept sending their soldiers after me, so it was easy, actually.”

“...Huh,” Kid says, because he’s not sure what to say.

They both fall asleep in their chairs that night, but Kid dreams only of sunlight, and the smell of a new boat. He wakes up to see Law slumped across the table across from him, the sun shining off his hair, his hand laid half-open, only two of the dark letters on his fingers visible. Kid should be thinking of setting sail again, of the open water and the smell of the ocean, but instead he thinks of Law’s hand closing around his own, with his ragged fingernails and their chipped polish. And here’s how it starts, the feeling starts in Kid’s chest, like sinking underwater, heavy and paralyzed--that but pleasant, in a way. 

So he looks out the window and thinks about asking Law why the hell his boat’s a submarine, anyway, until Wire practically trips into the room and Law wakes up. 

And they don’t leave, but the bad dreams do, but Kid still stays up late and his chest feels heavy and he doesn’t do anything about it because he doesn’t fucking know what to do with it. But that’s never stopped him before, has it? Except now, leaving destruction in his wake isn’t the point or even something acceptable, but--if he shatters his own heart like glass just from this, he deserves the shards poking into his skin, right? That’s how this works. 

So here’s how it starts, Kid with a brief moment of hesitation, then diving straight in and dragging Law down with him by the front of his shirt, or, more accurately, pushing him down against the table and kissing him until his lipstick’s all over Law’s mouth and it looks like he’s just smashed face-first into a cherry pie, until Law flips him back over even though he’s thin enough that Kid could probably pick him up with two fingers (he’s fucking strong, and Kid’s not complaining here), and with their faces millimeters apart, Law looks even more fucking tired than he always does, and Kid halfway just wants to take him to bed and make him sleep. (He is not this soft; he is not the pie filling in this scenario, except, fuck, maybe he is? Maybe he’d already assigned himself that? He’s tired; he doesn’t fucking know; he doesn’t have to justify shit, especially if he hasn’t said it out loud.)

But the starting point is arbitrary; all time is arbitrary, anyway. How it starts, when it starts, where it starts, are all just relative points in the past to the here and now, the where it picks up and where they leave off next, except that’s all arbitrary, too. It’s really just a bunch of continuous lines in all directions, or at least Kid likes to think of it like that. It makes more sense to him like that. But all of that doesn’t matter so much when they meet, again and again, on island after island after spot at sea, because when Law’s there Kid doesn’t have to think about him being there so much. They can just be.


End file.
